PAK­ISTAN CLINCH TEST

DE­SPITE a fight­ing hun­dred by Darren Bravo Pak­istan pulled off a ten­sion-packed 56-run vic­tory against West Indies in the first day-night Test in Dubai yes­ter­day. Bravo kept Pak­istan’s vic­tory bid on hold dur­ing his re­sis­tance-filled 410-minute long 116 and it needed leg-spin­ner Yasir Shah to make a stun­ning two-handed catch to end his in­nings. Mis­bah said the match was good for Test cricket. “It was a good Test and good for the Test cricket with ev­ery­thing in it,” said Mis­bah af­ter the vic­tory. “You need Test matches like that and credit to West Indies to put such a fight.” Bravo lin­gered on his haunches at the crease for a minute be­fore trudg­ing back to the pav­il­ion, dis­ap­pointed at his dis­missal af­ter bring­ing so close a draw or an up­set win. Bravo’s eighth Test hun­dred spiced with 10 bound­aries and a six had brought West Indies within 83 runs of vic­tory and 27 ovesr to bat for a draw af­ter they were set a daunt­ing 346 runs to win. Left-armer Mo­ham­mad Nawaz trapped Deven­dra Bishoo while Miguel Cum­mins and last man Shan­non Gabriel were run out to spark a cel­e­bra­tion amongst Pak­istan play­ers. Pace­man Mo­ham­mad Amir fin­ished with 3-63 and Shah took 2-113. Pak­istan had never hoped to strive that much af­ter get­ting an im­por­tant wicket of Mar­lon Sa­muels with the first ball of the day but Bravo left them frus­trated and near to ca­pit­u­la­tion. This was the long­est bat­ting by a West Indies team in the fourth in­nings of a Test since their 105.1 over in­nings against In­dia in Kolkata

in 1978. The se­cond Test starts in Abu Dhabi from Fri­day with the third and fi­nal Test played in Shar­jah from Oc­to­ber 30-Novem­ber 3.